That Which Binds Us
by Kimi the Kenlei
Summary: Naruto couldn't have been happier. He and his beloved girlfriend Hinata were soon to be married, and soon to have a child. ...But then Hinata died. Lotsa angst. Eventual NaruNeji, heavily mentioned NaruHina and NejiHina.


"Ssh… Shush now, Chuuou."

Uzumaki Naruto, two weeks away from twenty years of age, cradled his only son in his strong arms. His would-have-been wife, Hinata, had gotten sick and died only a month after she gave birth. Even though they had disowned her when she revealed that she was pregnant with Uzumaki's child, the Hyuuga's saw fit that they give her a proper burial, one filled with white flowers and silk ribbons. Hinata had always been a pure soul. Naruto was glad her burial reflected that. He just wished that he wasn't reminded of it so when he looked at his child's eyes.

He remembered everything when he looked at his eyes. He remembered her skin and her smile, both nearly as white as her eyes. He remembered the time they'd snuck out one night. He had picked a white flower for her and she'd actually started crying over it. Women were weird like that.

He remembered her shaking form in the starchy hospital bed, begging him to take care of Chuuou and crying and asking him to forgive her for leaving him. He'd told her not to talk like, that she'd make it, that he knew she would. What he would have given to be right…

"Naruto?"

"Huh? Oh, Neji. Hi." He but on his best smile, hastily wiping away the tears collecting at his eyes. Neji noticed, just as he noticed damn near everything, but didn't mention it.

"I was waiting outside for five whole minutes, dobe." He informed him, looking away from his face. At anything but his face.

"Seriously? Sorry about that. I was deep in thought."

"Somehow I doubt that." He replied, not even smirking. That one was way too easy.

"Ha." Naruto said dryly, shifting the whimpering baby in his arms.

"…Do you need any help with him?" Neji tried to say nonchalantly. Any Hyuuga worth half a lick would have spotted the twitch of curiosity he'd given off, but Naruto, of course, didn't.

"Sure. He's the only reason you came over, after all."

Neji almost found himself denying what he'd said, but didn't. In retrospect, what did he come over to Naruto's house for but to check on Chuuou, the only son of his beloved late Hinata? If it weren't for the babe with Hinata's eyes, he probably wouldn't have wanted to see Naruto at all, for he still resented him.

It wasn't because he blamed him for her death. He didn't. He blamed him for taking so much of the time Hinata had had left from him. Even then, he knew how petty it was, and he also was grateful that he'd made her happy in her final months. In the end, he was too confused to say exactly how he felt about Naruto, and focused instead on Chuuou.

"He's been eating well, right?" Neji inquired.

"Yeah. I think he takes after me in that department!" He half-joked, grinning proudly.

"It must be nice to have a child…" The brunette mused, not really listening to what he was saying.

Naruto nodded. "It's hard work, too. I wish…" He trailed off, shaking his head. But Neji knew what he had started to say.

I wish Hinata were still here.

He couldn't blame him for that. Naruto had no experience with parents; he had needed Hinata to be a good mother, in case he couldn't be a good father. His fears went unfounded, though, for the child was healthy and well fed and happy.

"…Me too." Neji finally said before handing the boy back to Naruto. "I'll see you around." He said simply, letting himself out.

Iruka-sensei took care of Chuuou when Naruto was called out on a mission, but he never had him any longer than the duration of said mission, for the second he got back, without even bothering to bathe or eat, Naruto would be already coming to collect his son from the schoolteacher. Sometimes Iruka-sensei would refuse to give him back until he took a bath, and Naruto would make a big fuss but eventually do as he was told.

Anyone who simply glanced briefly would see than he was an excellent father. Anyone who knew him most likely knew he'd grow to be the overly protective type that would annoy his child to no end. During the first month without Hinata, he'd been a complete wreck. What grief he could feel amidst his constant business attributed to it, of course, but the blond would throw a complete conniption fit if his baby made an odd sounding fart.

Finally he calmed down enough so that he wouldn't go rushing little Chuuou to the hospital every time he spat up or cried a little louder than normal. It was during this time that Neji, who had originally been planned to marry Hinata by the Hyuuga family elders, started to show up at his house, sometimes with little trinkets for the baby or other times cleaning supplies because Naruto, although able of tidiness, was unable to keep his house completely spotless(This had led to an argument the first time Neji showed up, but had quickly become commonplace).

Soon the responsibility of taking care of Chuuou in Naruto's absence fell equally upon Iruka-sensei and Neji. Iruka was of course happy to help his former student out when he could, but being an eligible bachelor, one could hardly expect him to have every night free to spend taking care of a baby.

Neji, however, had no interest in dating, and had landed a cushiony office job for the time being. Like Naruto, he too was still waiting to get over the death of the one he loved. He was always ready and more than willing to take care of Chuuou, and for that Naruto was of course grateful. To thank him, in their free time he would often treat him out to Ichiraku Ramen. It was a comfortable state of life for them both.

But like they always do, a rumor was soon to surface.

"It's true!" Amasa Soandso told all her friends. "My cousin by marriage heard from his friend who heard from his girlfriend's friend who heard from her brother's sensei who heard from his sparring partner who is a close friend of Hyuuga Neji that Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji are lovers!"

Now, anyone with half a brain who knew anything at all about Neji would know that he wouldn't even tell an imaginary friend something so personal for fear of the invisible bastard squealing. The rumor was incorrect, of course, but it still managed to circulate itself throughout all of Konoha in a matter of days.

It spelled bad news most of all for Naruto, who was transformed overnight from someone most fangirls didn't give a second look at to their own public enemy number one. They glowered at him in the streets, squawked and screeched at him with their harpy-like voices and left little "NEJI IS MINE, YOU BASTARD!" notes attached to his door and in his toaster and by the soap in his shower and god knew where else! He'd found over forty of them in one single day. He was, to say the least, getting more than a little freaked out.

And it just so happened that one day, as Naruto was walking with Chuuou in his arms to the grocery store, one particularly bold kunoichi got the bright idea to get a little more physical with her bitterness. She set up a standard booby trap, the old step-into-a-noose-and-get-stuck-hanging-upside-down. It was the sort of trap that was so incredibly simple and utterly easy for any normal ninja to spot that Naruto simply couldn't NOT walk right into it.

Startled by the sudden change in gravity, Naruto let go of his son for a split second. He was already reaching for a kunai to cut himself free and save him, but Neji had miraculously appeared in a split second and caught him before Naruto could. The kunoichi, seeing her botched plan, ran away before either man could come after her. Even still, they could have, and were so tempted to it literally hurt, but seeing the other girls still there, Neji decided on something else. He handed the crying baby back to his father, who was more than visibly shaken at the close call, and stared down every girl still present with a deadly calm.

"If anyone EVER tries something like that again," He snarled. "I will KILL them. Got that!" No one dared to reply.

If there were any other traps planted around, anyone with a will to live would have gotten rid of them, and fast. As it was, Neji still decided to accompany Naruto to his destination, as he had the day off that day, to scare off any more psychotic kunoichis with a basic knowledge of ropes and trap-setting.

After buying his groceries, Naruto insisted that he come have some ramen at Ichiraku with him, his treat, of course.

"It's the least I can do, after all!" He said.

"It's not as if he's not related to me, either." Neji replied modestly.

"Ah, that's right." The blond said, remembering. "That's right… Hinata and you were cousins…"

Both felt a pang of grief at her name, like a cold heartburn.

"Um… Here, let me finish feeding him, and you go ahead and eat." Neji said, not listening to any protests the blue eyed dobe began to make and took the child and his bottle from his arms.

As he ate, or, rather, picked at his food, as the ramen had gotten slightly cold and cold ramen is never as good as hot ramen, Neji studied his… Was he a nephew? Well, nephew was a good enough title. He had Hinata's eyes. And not just the byakugan, either. He had… Hinata's eyes. Hinata had always had eyes that, although at first glance they were the same as any other Hyuuga's eyes, were… Different. They were softer, and somehow more white than a normal Hyuuga. Neji didn't bother thinking too much about it, as it couldn't be explained if he wasn't imagining it as it was. He had his father's hair, though. Tufts of golden blond could be seen peeking out the sides of the cap Naruto had put on him to keep his head warm.

Seeing the child in his arms, Neji was hit once again with the realization of how _unfair_ it all was. Hinata should be the one sitting here eating ramen with Naruto, holding her child and mildly observing and not caring about her husband's terrible table manners. Not him. It was unfair to Naruto too. They'd been so young and in love, it was hard to imagine that things would turn out how they had. Sometimes the more bitter part of Neji would wonder how different things might have been if Hinata had just married him. It was impractical, since she would have gotten sick no matter who she chose, but sometimes one needed to be impractical. Sometimes you needed to wonder and make-believe. After all, it wouldn't make sense if you tried to make sense out of everything.

"…You and Chuuou have the same eyes." Said Naruto, snapping Neji out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"Well… I always thought your and Hinata's eyes were different from other Hyuuga's…" He say, nearly mimicking his earlier thoughts. "Hinata always had those eyes, but you didn't get then until after I clobbered you that one time during the chuunin exams. Or maybe it's just cause you and me started being friends after that, and I hadn't noticed until we actually spent more than two minutes in each other's presence without there being some kind of fight going on. Either way, Chuuou's got those kind of eyes, too." He grinned.

Neji was silent for a minute. "…Do you want to pretend to be boyfriends?"

Naruto started choking on his ramen. "What!" He sputtered.

Neji's face turned a deep red, hardly believing he'd actually said what he said. "Well, that is… I figured that it would be a way that I could go over to your house and look after Chuuou, and no one would think it weird and those idiotic girls would leave you alone if they thought I was really protective of you, and—" He blathered on.

"Dude." Naruto interrupted. "Let those idiots think what they want. And I can take care of myself. Plus, I'm pretty sure those girls won't be trying anything else after what you said to them today. Don't stress it, we don't need to pretend to be anything for those idiots." He finished quickly.

"R-Right…" Neji replied, still mortified. "Forget I mentioned it. It was a stupid idea…"

"Totally! Man, and people say I'M the number one ninja at surprising people! You damn near gave me a heart attack just now." He laughed, slurping up the rest of his ramen.

Even Neji, through his embarrassment, had to laugh at himself, if only to release some of the stress. Honestly, where HAD that come from? The idea had just popped into his head and out of his mouth faster than he could process it. Scary.

"Anyways," Naruto said, getting up and taking Chuuou back from Neji. "I need to go home and put this one to bed. I'll see you later, yeah?"

Neji nodded. "Bye."

"Bye!"

Walking home, Neji spotted a stray cat. Acting on another unexplainable compulsion, he took it home.


End file.
